Kerosene shortage…Ministry moves to contain it
The Ghanaian TimesSerious Fraud Office under pressure..?
The IndependentPrepare for battle Nuamah Donkor – KMA
Ghana PalaverNPP gurus against Mahama’s role…
The Statesman
New twist on presidential jet…Gallen Limited non-existent
Kerosene shortage…Ministry moves to contain it
In a front-page banner, the Daily Graphic reports that the Ministry of Mines and Energy has expressed concern over the shortage of kerosene in Ghana and directed all oil companies to furnish it with lists of their kerosene dealers throughout the country.
The oil companies are also to provide a list of dealers with tankers and the registration numbers of tankers which lifted kerosene from the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) between November 1 and November 30, this year, and where the product was off-loaded.
The Graphic says Mr Simon Abingya, Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy gave the directives at a news conference at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region on Sunday. Mr Abingya is reported as saying that while more than four million litres of kerosene has been released to the open market, kerosene is not getting to consumers.
He stressed that reports reaching the government indicate that there is a serious shortage of the product in the country. The Deputy Minister is quoted as saying that in spite of the high price of crude oil on the world market, the policy of the government is to ensure that petroleum products, including kerosene, is on the market.
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Serious Fraud Office under pressure..?
The Ghanaian Times reports that pressure is on the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to stop its investigations into the use and disbursement of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s Poverty Alleviation Fund.
The Times, in a front-page story, says the brakes are being applied by some top officials of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), but the SFO is determined ‘to blow off the lid.’
Attributing this revelation to a source close to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the paper says that the SFO had refused to yield to the pressure and was going on with investigations. According to the source, the NDPC officials were trying to cover up a large-scale corruption and embezzlement of the Fund at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).
"When compared, the exposed fraud associated with the Poverty Alleviation Fund at the Afram Plains District Assembly is a child’s play", the Times quotes the source as saying.
The source says apart from the failed attempt to stop the investigations the NDPC officials also prevailed upon the SFO to allow them to bring their choice of auditors to audit the books of the AMA Poverty Alleviation Fund.
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Return to topPrepare for battle Nuamah Donkor – KMA
The Independent in a front-page story says 46 elected members of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), have warned newly-appointed Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Nuamah Donkor, to be mindful of events at the KMA, especially "non-compliance with government programmes and directions".
The elected members are said to have declared that the Minister "should be prepared for the battle ahead of him and try to be objective in dealing with all manner of men".
The Independent says that a recent statement by the 46 members signed by their spokesman, Mr I. Butler, stated that President Jerry Rawlings has still not resolved the alleged beating of Assemblyman Agyeman Pambuor by ‘machomen’ allegedly upon the orders of KMA Chief Executive, Nana Akwasi Agyeman.
The assemblymen are said to have stated that even though Professor Kofi Awoonor, Presidential Aide, was sent by the Castle to probe the issue, nothing concrete has come out of it as Prof. Awoonor merely made promises to return to Kumasi to meet the Assembly members again after a meeting on October 6, this year.
"It is very disheartening to note that after waiting patiently for over six weeks, all that we heard was that Hon. Kojo Yankah had been re-posted to Accra", the Independent quotes the statement as saying.
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NPP gurus against Mahama’s role…
In a front-page story, the Ghana Palaver, says barely 24 hours after the Opposition demonstration in Accra, the NPP headquarters at Kokomlemle, was turned into a shouting battleground between some of the leading members of the party over the decision to allow Dr Edward Mahama, leader of the People’s National Convention (PNC), to present the Opposition petition to Parliament.
According to the Palaver, tempers rose as they traded in hot arguments, some of the angry members contending that the petition should have been read by Mr J.A. Kufuor, the NPP presidential candidate, since the party is the largest in the Minority Group with a respectable number of parliamentary seats as against the PNC’s one seat.
The paper says those opposed to Dr Mahama, acting as the spokesman of the Group, maintained that the PNC of which he was the presidential candidate in the 1995 elections, could only attract three per cent of the total votes cast, making it an insignificant party in the political equation.
GRi./
Return to top The Statesman
New twist on presidential jet…Gallen Limited non-existent
In a its top story, the Statesman says fresh evidence on the presidential jet points to a gigantic fraud on the Ghanaian taxpayer by the NDC government, which recently provoked a storm over the purchase of he aircraft.
According to the paper, its investigations indicate that Gallen Limited, which Finance Minister, Kwame Peprah, told Parliament recently was the company from whom the aircraft was bought, is physically non-existent, it is in fact a ‘shell company’ with no physical presence in he Cayman Islands, its purported location.
The Statesman says that a 70-page agreement on the presidential jet submitted to Parliament recently by Mr Peprah, gave Gallen’s address as "First Floor, Walker House, Mary Street P.O. Box 265 GT George Town, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.
The paper says that its information, however, shows that there is no "Walker House" on Mary Street, adding that Gallen as a structural entity, is virtually non-existent in George Town, Grand Cayman, where it is represented on paper by W.S. Walker, a lawyer. The Statesman explains that the purported address of Gallen Limited is Walker’s address while his office is at Caledonia House on Mary Street.
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